About the project
The Sensational Museum uses what we know about disability to change how museums work for everyone. In this £1m project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, researchers from across England partner with leading heritage organisations to reimagine our experiences of museums. Led by Professor Hannah Thompson (Royal Holloway, University of London), this project wants to transform access and inclusion within the museum sector by putting disability at the centre of museum practice and acknowledging the diversity and difference of all visitors.
The core research team will work with disabled and non-disabled audiences, staff and sector organisations to prototype and test a range of new ways of accessing museum collections and cataloguing objects. They will work to reimagine how the stories behind museum objects are communicated to the public. At workshops and events across the UK, the project will also develop a sense-based approach to collection and communication. This approach assumes that no specific sense is necessary or sufficient to work with or experience museum collections.
Funding body
Arts and Humanities Research Council
Investigators
Dr Alison Eardley, Co-Investigator (University of Westminster)
Dr Charlotte Slark, Postdoctoral Research Fellow (University of Westminster)
Professor Hannah Thompson, Principal Investigator (Royal Holloway, University of London)
Professor Ross Parry, Co-Investigator (University of Leicester)
Professor Anne Chick, Co-Investigator (University of Lincoln)
Professional partners
Museums Association, The Collections Trust, VocalEyes, Curating for Change, AVM Curiosities, Barker Langham, GEM – Group for Education in Museums, Scottish Museums Federation, Screen South, The Museum Platform, Wellcome Collection